Sunlight makes right for local company

A Solana Beach company is helping turn energy consumers into
energy producers. Open Energy Corp. makes solar energy-producing
roofing tiles that allow customers to produce their own electricity
and possibly produce it for San Diego County.

David Saltman, Open Energy's president and chief executive
officer, said the key to his company's solar energy system is
practicality.

"It's the only system you can walk on," he said. "It really
allows photovoltaic (solar energy) systems to be part of the
home."

Open Energy seeks to make people more energy-efficient, Saltman
said. The company produces solar energy systems with solar-celled,
water-resistant roofing tiles, called SolarSave, which withstand
280 pounds of pressure per square foot.

Solar power isn't a short-term investment because prices for
such systems start at around $26,000 for about 400 square feet of
rooftop. But company officials said customers get $9,800 of that
price back in state rebates and federal tax deductions at the end
of the year. Then the system cuts electricity needs by 60 percent,
the company said, which could pay off the final costs within seven
years.

Once the system is paid off, customers could save, or even make,
money in two ways, according to Saltman. They could hook up an
energy converter, he said, and send solar-produced electricity back
into the statewide system. Such a move actually spins a customer's
energy meter backward and could result in a check, instead of a
bill, from San Diego Gas & Electric Co. if more energy is
produced than used.

Second, he said a customer could lower power usage when energy
is in most demand and increase it when demand is far less, Saltman
said. Customers save money, he said, from SDG&E credits given
to reward customers for decreasing power use when demand is
high.

Photovoltaic, or solar, energy systems use cells inside the
solar tile to capture energy in the sun's rays and convert it to
common electricity.

Solar energy use is already electrifying San Diego County. Scott
Anders, director of the Energy Policy Initiative Center at the
University of San Diego School of Law, studies solar energy and
said about 3,500 residential and commercial buildings in the San
Diego area have solar systems on their roofs that generate 21
megawatts.

If the number increased to 35,000, those systems alone could
produce 5 percent of the total electricity needs for San Diego
County, he said.

Ed Van Herik, spokesman for SDG&E, said the company has
contracted to get 300 megawatts of electricity from solar power by
2010.

Open Energy isn't the only California company dealing in solar
energy. Power Light Corp. in Berkeley and RWE Schott Solar in
Rocklin produce solar energy systems that could be installed on
rooftops.

Schott's system even tilts to maximize solar energy production
during the day. Locally, General Electric is installing solar
energy systems on the roofs of 14 San Diego schools, according to a
company news release.

But unlike Open Energy's systems, those solar installations are
put on rooftops and don't act as roofs themselves, according to the
companies' Web sites. It makes Open Energy's solar tiles more
attractive to buildings in northern or mountainous locations
because they can handle snow, according to the news release.